COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A Danish study on women with neck pain says specific strength training led to prolonged relief of neck muscle pain, compared to general fitness training.

Gisela Sjogaard and Lars L. Andersen of the National Research Center for the Working Environment in Copenhagen, Denmark, conducted a randomized controlled trial of 94 women from September 2005 to March 2006. Seventy-nine percent of the participants used a keyboard for more than three-quarters of their working time. Participants were assigned to three intervention groups: those who did supervised specific neck and shoulder strength training, those who did high-intensity general fitness training on a bicycle ergometer and a control group that received health counseling but no physical training.
 

The study, published in Arthritis Care & Research, found that the general fitness group experienced a small decrease in neck muscle pain immediately after exercise; however, the specific strength training group showed a marked decrease in pain over a prolonged training period.

"Based on the present results, supervised high-intensity dynamic strength training of the painful muscle three times a week for 20 minutes should be recommended in the treatment of trapezius myalgia," the authors said in a statement.